How Stoics Handle People Who Drain Their Energy
A reflection on crowds, calm, and the energy we give away Stuck at Poznań Airport, I watched a room full of strangers spend their patience differently — and realized the Stoics have a simple test for who deserves your energy and who's just borrowed weather passing through. Some people arrive like weather, and leave you rained on. Others sit beside you, and the air stays yours. The first kind takes without asking; the second kind simply stays. Learn the difference — it is the only door worth guarding. "People are not disturbed by things, but by the views they take of them." — Epictetus , Enchiridion I was stuck at Poznań Airport (Poland) yesterday, waiting for a flight to London that refused to leave on schedule. The terminal wasn't crowded — if anything, it had the strange, echoing calm of a room built for motion that has, for the moment, forgotten what it's for. I found a table near the coffee stand, set my bag on the empty chair across from me, and watch...
